Conventional laundry dryers generally include a rotatable drum in which clothes are tumbled during the drying process. In some dryers, the rotatable drum rotates in a single direction. Other dryers include the capability to sequentially rotate the drum in opposite directions. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,555,645 and 5,651,194. The conventional systems described in these applications generally employ a drum with a rear end cap that rotates with the drum and is provided with a center axle mount support system for the drum. However, such an arrangement may not provide adequate support for large capacity drums. Additionally, such an arrangement generally occupies more space within the cabinet and requires more material than a drum formed by a cylindrical shell capped and rotatably supported at its ends by stationary front and rear bulkhead structures of the dryer.
Laundry volume capacity is an important attribute of a laundry dryer. The provision of a larger diameter drum will generally increase the volume capacity of the dryer. However, as drum size increases, rotational stability and drum flex/deformation become more of an issue. Hence, the design of the rotational drum support becomes more critical. Many dryer systems include two or more rollers configured to support the rotatable drum. Arrangements such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,752,694 to McCormick include three equally spaced rollers configured to support the dryer drum, used in conjunction with a central axle mount of the drum. However, these arrangements do not account for the drum flex and deformation that may occur with a wide roller spacing in the case of a relatively large diameter bulkhead mounted drum.
Conventional dryers often use a belt drive system to rotate the dryer drum. In such arrangements, the belt is tensioned about the drum and a motor is used to drive the belt in order to rotate the drum. Tensioning pulleys may be used to lessen any slack in the belt in order to efficiently rotate the drum. However, conventional tensioning systems include multiple pieces including multi-piece mounting brackets for pulleys, and separate springs, which add assembly steps and cost to the laundry dryer.